1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to samplers and, more particularly, to a receptacle type capture device especially suitable for collecting seawater samples for research purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bacteria, fungi, and microorganisms living in seawater are responsible for the degradation of organic material. Microbubbles in the same environment are known to provide nuclei for cavitation and to affect the mass transfer and the acoustic properties of the water. Investigation of microbiological and microbubble activity in the ocean, therefore, has come to be of considerable interest. In many cases, because of factors such as substantial depth of the environments of interest, investigation of biologicals and bubbles is possible only by quiescently recovering them in undamaged, unaltered form and by studying them as they exist in their usual ambient conditions of pressure, temperature, and chemistry. It is also often desirable to obtain undamaged, unaltered samples of other fluids such as lake water, gases, or contaminated air, and keep them during retrieval and examination at their usual ambient conditions.
In the past, a number of devices for collecting fluid samples have been employed. Most of these devices do not maintain pressure on the samples from their recovery to their examination; hence, samples become depressurized during retrieval or transfer. Those methods and devices which do maintain the samples at pressure have other shortcomings such as possessing a a variable or uncontrolled filling rate, requiring collector sizes much larger than the volume of sample collected, or lacking means for remote operations. Such shortcomings can increase the cost of the sample collectors, interfere with the collection process, and/or invalidate the integrity of samples.